This invention relates generally to a method of producing a modified, three-dimensional reproduction of an object, as well as to an apparatus designed for carrying out this method.
A special field of use in which the invention can be utilized is the manufacture of prosthetic sockets. Such prosthetic sockets, which are fitted, e.g. on the residual stump of an amputed leg or an amputed arm, have to have excellent fitting properties not to cause the amputee discomfort or suffering.
When manufacturing such prosthetic sockets one has hitherto proceeded in such a way that one has made a cast of the leg stump (or corresponding limb) in a plaster bandage or the like and thereby obtained a female model of the leg stump. Of this female model there is subsequently made a male replica of the female plaster cast. The shape of this male replica is then modified in conformity with the shape of the leg stump in its loaded condition, and subsequently there is made with the aid of the lastmentioned model a prosthetic socket which conforms to the shape of the model in its loaded condition.